Hammoudi honored for literary reportage

Posted October 28, 2005; 06:39 p.m.

by Ruth Stevens

Hammoudi won the second prize of 30,000 Euro ($36,000) for his 2004
book, "A Season in Mecca. Account of a Pilgrimage." The book, published
by Seuil in Paris, is the story of Hammoudi's pilgrimage to Mecca at
age 50.

According to the international jury for the award, the book "describes
the strong, sensual impressions in Medina and Mecca, and impressively
gives anthropological, historical, religious and social insights into
Islam."

The prize is intended to honor the extraordinary achievements of
literary reportage, providing "symbolic, moral and financial support
for reporters whose courage, curiosity and integrity drives them to
create in-depth, well-researched texts, bringing unknown, forgotten and
hidden realities to light." Organizers and supporters of the award are
Lettre International, the Aventis Foundation and the Goethe-Institut.

Hammoudi, a faculty member since 1990, was the founding director of Princeton's Institute for the Transregional Study of the
Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. He has done
extensive work on the ethnohistory of his native Morocco. He teaches
courses on Middle Eastern society, colonialism and French ethnographic
theory.